1) Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to emergency lighting equipment, specifically an emergency lighting function illumination appliance that integrates ordinary lighting and emergency lighting into a single piece of equipment.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Conventional emergency lighting equipment is a type of appliance that continues to provide illumination during failures of normal power (commercial mains electricity) distribution with the purpose of maintaining minimal visibility in homes, work places, and shelter passageways to thereby enable a short period of time to conclude work or facilitate evacuation guidance. Evacuation guidance devices includes exit indicator lights over safety doors and various hallway direction signs, their installation allowing identification of evacuation passageways and safety door locations in the dark. As living quality has risen in recent years, building design has in addition to emphasizing comfort also been required to take safety into consideration.
Conventional emergency lighting equipment now available on the market are mainly wall-mounted emergency lighting fixtures. Such emergency lighting is typically installed in several places along hallways, stairs, passageways, and other ordinarily illuminated areas that must be traversed during evacuations. In most cases, the emergency lighting is internally equipped with an AC-DC automatically switching device, wherein alternating current (AC) automatically charges a backup battery and automatically ceases when a full charge is reached. In the event of a power outage, the device automatically switches to a backup circuit which supplies power for emergency illumination.
However, since emergency lighting is designed for stand alone use in various areas, consumers can purchase them individually for indoor installation. Such emergency lighting is only placed along hallways, stairs, passageways, and other ordinarily illuminated areas that must be passed through during evacuations to highlight their locations and, therefore, the illuminated areas are limited and, furthermore, due to their wall-mount design, light is only directed onto walls, which is a further curbs area coverage.
Consequently, lighting equipment, such as fluorescent lamps, in most homes and work places are of a switch-based design, enabling circuit opening and closure for controlling fluorescent operation on and off. As a result, mains power must be supplied before fluorescent lamps can provide illumination. Conversely, conventional emergency lighting operation is the opposite of conventional lighting equipment; illumination is provided when mains power fails and the lighting automatically terminates when normal mains power supply resumes. As such, the applicant of the invention herein thought to provide a new type of lighting equipment, the said equipment utilizing fluorescent lamp tube, light bulb, or light-emitting diode (LED) such that the fluorescent lamp tube, light bulb, or light-emitting diode (LED) typically utilized for ordinary lighting still retains lighting capability during mains power outages and, therefore, integrated both an ordinary lighting device and a emergency lighting device into one single structural entity.
The most difficult aspect of integration is how to differentiate between power outage and user switch offs. The market solution approach is to use a three-wire circuit for control (building circuits must be re-configured), a few utilize remote controllers, and some use cords to operate switches; in short, the conventional market does lacks a technology that is economical and convenient.